Thursday, 3 January 2008

All Steamed Up

An exercise in reduction gearing. As a seasonal pass-time, Meccano construction takes some beating. The Britains Defender County is altogether too modern for my taste but was to hand for a test run. We managed to get up to 16 lb lift to the accompaniment of hissing and gurgling noises from the SE 2, before belt slippage became an issue. Off to e-bay in search of chain & sprockets for a more positive drive. Also in the process of building a reversing, two speed gearbox from a job lot of gears and pinions wrestled off said auction site. Choo choo. MORE TORQUE.

4 comments:

Oh Diplo you know what we like. Marvellous,I didn't know you'd got any Meccano lying around. And if anybody comes across a fifties Meccano set with the bits still tied into a reasonably labelled box with that green string, remember whose big birthday's coming up.

Diplomat, what a fantastic shot. I remember staying up much too late with a Mamod traction engine I'd 'restored' when I was about 13. I'd turned a new flywheel for it that was much too heavy. The poor thing could hardly move. I learned more about physics in that one exercise than any number of tedious lessons at school. I had forgotten all of this until I saw your Meccano photo. A crane! A crane! My kingdom for a crane!

The more I look at this, the more I think of the best Christmas present I didn't get. I bought Kim Sayer's book Dinky Toys, and if you think it's yet another catalogue of mint and boxed, think again. Beautifully surreal, very, very clever. Buy it for everyone you know who you think will appreciate a green Aveling Barford Road Roller rolling out pastry.

About Me

I observe huge amounts of stuff and need to commit some to blog to free brain capacity. Unfortunately I have a massive archive of transport nonsense that seems to be pouring itself out on these pages - sorry. I'm quite serious about real food also.